Third baseman Travis Shaw slugged the first two home runs of his major league career and had four RBIs as the Boston Red Sox overcame another shaky start from Joe Kelly in an 11-7 win over the Tampa...

Andre Roy captured this image of a black bear in his backyard on Grout Farm Road in Raymond on Wednesday afternoon. Roy's fiancee, Brenda Fowler, said the bear has been disrupting backyard bird feeders for at least the last two years. (ANDRE ROY)

Spotted at last

Elusive bear finally captured on film

By GRETYL MACALASTERUnion Leader Correspondent

RAYMOND — Brenda Fowler has been waiting two years to see a black bear in her backyard.

As soon as she moved to New Hampshire from Florida with her fiancé, Andre Roy, her Grout Farm Road neighbor started telling them the backyard bird feeder pole was being bent by a bear.

Roy moved his deer camera from his camp in Canada to his backyard in Raymond in an attempt to catch an image of the hungry critter. They spent months trying to get a picture, but captured nothing but a blurry image and gave up.

Then on Tuesday, the couple came home to find "big, old bear prints" on the patio table outside, Fowler said, and they knew the neighborhood scavenger was back.

On Wednesday around 4:30 p.m., Roy was standing on the patio talking on the phone when he spotted the black bear on its hind legs hugging a tree.

Roy dashed for his camera, placed it outside, and then retreated to watch from the safety of the kitchen.

"The bear started slowly coming to the bird feeder, gets on his hind legs and is getting ready to bend the pole, so Andre opened the door and looked out and that bear just darted out back of the woods again," Fowler said. "Dirt was flying everywhere. He said he'd never seen a bear move so fast."

But the camera captured a clear image of the burly bear in the backyard before it ran off.

Fowler said she is not scared one bit by the bear, although for now she has pulled her bird feeders inside.

"I love wildlife and there is nothing like this back home, and I enjoy seeing this," Fowler said.

She is also happy they finally captured a picture of the elusive neighborhood bear.